h
was achieved his vivid temperament always foresaw others. Willet had
often called him the child of hope, and hope is a powerful factor in
victory. Now it seemed to him for a little while that his own rescue,
achieved by himself, was complete. He had nothing to do but to return
to New York and his friends, and that was just detail.

He swung along through the bushes, forgetting the burden of his
weapons and his pack of food. In truth, he swaggered a bit, but it was
a gay and gallant swagger, and it became him. He walked for some
distance, feeling that he had been changed from a seaman into a
warrior, and then from a warrior into an explorer, which was his
present character. But he did not see at present the variety and
majesty that all explorers wish to find. The country continued low,
the same alternation of sand and salt marsh, although the bushes were
increasing in size, and they were interspersed here and there with
trees of some height.

Reaching the crest of a low hill he took his last look backward, and
was barely able to see the upper works of the stranded schooner. Then
he thought of the captain and his exuberant spirits compelled him to
laugh aloud. With the chances a hundred to one against him he had
evened the score. While he had been compelled to serve the captain,
the captain in turn had been forced to serve him. It was enough to
make a sick man well, and to turn despair into confidence. He was in
very truth and essence the child of hope.

Another low hill and from its summit he saw nothing but the bushy
wilderness, with a strip of forest appearing on the sunken horizon. He
searched the sky for a wisp of smoke that might tell of a human
habitation, below, but saw none. Yet people might live beyond the
strip of forest, where the land would be less sandy and more fertile,
and, after a brief rest, he pushed on with the same vigor of the body
and elation of the spirit, coming soon to firmer ground, of which he
was glad, as he now left no trail, at least none that an ordinary
white man could follow.

He trudged bravely on for hours through a wilderness that seemed to be
complete so far as man was concerned, although its character steadily
changed, merging into a region of forest and good soil. When he came
into a real wood, of trees large and many, it was about noon, and
finding a comfortable place with his back to a tree he ate from the
precious pack.

The day was still brilliant but cold and he wisely